Topics I've Started

Today the second of seven DLC adventures for Shadow of the Tomb Raider was released. Titled The Pillar this one sets players against a new challenge tomb called the Path of Huracan as Lara tries to discover the truth behind the Maya apocalypse legend. As part of this DLC, the Sinchi Chiqa Battle Dress outfit will be available, with its ability to reduce incoming projectile damage and increasing the amount of ammo you can craft. The Oathtaker's bow will do increased damage to armored enemies, and with the A Thousand Eyes skill, Lara can use Survival Instincts while in tree canopies and concealment walls.

The Pillar can be purchased for $4.99 separately or as part of the $29.99 Season Pass.

Today THQ Nordic announced a new expansion is coming for SpellForce 3, titled Soul Harvest and with it a number of new features including new races to play as, bringing the total to five. The two new races are the Dwarves and the Dark Elves but all races will have unique mechanics and unit kits to make them feel more diverse and encourage replaying the campaign. All races will be gaining flying units as part of this expansion, which has a campaign that should provide over 20 hours of gameplay. There are also new game modes and an overhaul to some of the game's core systems. There will also be new abilities and skilltrees for more diverse heroes, new RTS gameplay with a sector-based system and a focus on global resource distribution, and an overhauled UI.

SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest is currently targeting a 2019Q2 release and will be available as a stand-alone expansion. This way you can have the full SpellForce 3 experience or just focus on the Dwarves and Dark Elves. There will be a special discount for existing SpellForce owners and more information about the units and some of the new game modes release dint he future.

The Anno franchise of city-building games is 20 years old this year, so Ubisoft has decided to celebrate. From now until December 22, if you log into your UPlay account, you are able to get Anno 1602: Creation of a New World, the first game in the franchise, for free. In it you will be challenged to discover, build, expand, and protect an island world.

Also to mark the occasion, Ubisoft opened up registration for the Anno 1800 closed beta, which will run from January 31 to February 4. Anno 1800 is scheduled to release on February 26, 2019 and will combine modes from the franchise's20 years, including a story-based campaign, customizable sandbox mode, and multiplayer. Anno Union, the collaboration between developers and fans called, is also ensuring other fan-requested features are present, such as individual AI opponents, multi-session gameplay, and more.

Though there are very few consumer products using High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), it is a technology there is still great interest in, as it can enable greater bandwidth in smaller areas and with less power than traditional memory solutions. Yesterday JEDEC updated the standard for the 2.5D, stacked memory technology, enabling single stacks to reach 24 GB of capacity and speeds up to 307 GB/s. This increase in bandwidth comes from an increase in the per-pin bandwidth to 2.4 Gbps while the 24 GB capacity per-stack comes from support for 16 Gb layers and configurations of stacks up to 12-high.

Currently HBM and the need to use an interposer with the packaging makes it more expensive to use than traditional memory solutions. However, as production increases to better satisfy demand for the it that extends beyond GPU VRAM, the price will come down and hopefully make it available for more products that will benefit from the smaller PCB required and less power needed.

Released back in February, Rad Rodgers will be coming to the Nintendo Switch in early 2019. It is already available on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Also announced with this new version coming is the approaching release of the game's Radical Edition, which is the version coming to Nintendo Switch. With this update, that will be free to all current owners of the game, players will have 2 player couch co-op, a battle mode, for when you want to fight your friends instead of fight with them, new abilities, minigames, overworld, levels, new secrets, and, importantly, new playable characters! Now instead of playing as Rad Rodgers in this homage to classic 90s-era platformers, you can play as Lo Wang of the Shadow Warrior franchise, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison from Bombshell, Cosmo of Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, and Duke Nukem of Duke Nukem. The voice actor of Duke Nukem, John St. John, is already the voice of Dusty in the game, Rad's game console and companion.

You can check out the trailer for Rad Rodgers - Radical Edition below.